Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

I am so confused! No snow, warm weather, time for spring work and time to turn the cattle out in the hills. But it's January and not time for such things. In fact just getting ready to start calving the two year-olds right now. Talking about calving, I saw a picture of triplets calves yesterday in the Agri-news. What a pain that would be. I very rarely get twins, I can't imagine triplets.

I figure once I start calving it will get cold and snowy just to make calving miserable. It would be par for the course. At least my confusion might be over if it got cold and snowy.

I'm not confused, I'm just well mixed. Robert Frost

Politics is something no sane person would want to be involved with. Perfect example being the latest BS over the pay increase for state workers. The Governor has one proposal and the Republicans are holding it up for their proposal. Where does the BS politics come in. The Republicans are upping the ante and want to give the state workers more than the Governor proposed.

So, if Governor BS opposes the Republican pay increase he is going against his own word to increase pay for state employees and the Republican party can hammer him on it. Also if the Governor opposes the pay raise the Republicans can beat on it next election season as an issue how Governor BS really doesn't support the people and want to raise their wages. If he caves to the Republican proposal then the Republicans can run around with their chests out saying they got a better pay raise for the state employees and they will definitely remind the voters of it come election time how much more they got for them than the Democrats were offering.

Politics, nasty business. As much as I despise Governor BS I have to feel sorry for him on this one. Either way he can lose.

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. John Kenneth Galbraith

I have talked before about the ESA and the the controversy with the Preble's jumping mouse not being a separate species and maybe being removed from the ESA. I found an interesting article this morning about the biologist Rob Ramey who made the discovery and some of what it has meant to him.

Tacked to a wall in Ramey's office is a copy of an illustration depicting Galileo being interrogated by Vatican inquisitors, demanding that he renounce his findings that the universe does not revolve around Earth. Ramey has drawn his own cartoon word bubbles on the drawing so that the chief inquisitor now says: "The mouse is a unique sub-species! The mouse is threatened with extinction! How dare you question our authority!" To which Galileo responds, "It may not be politically correct, but it is factually correct that the mouse is neither!"

Now I am not comparing him to Galileo but it is a funny parallel to his situation of challenging the 'popular' viewpoint.

"I've tried to keep my sense of humor through all this," says Ramey. "But the truth is, throughout history, when you have a dogma, and scientists challenge that dogma, no matter how good their evidence, there are those who will try to impeach their credibility. I just think that good science, like good citizenship, depends upon asking questions and deriving truth through critical thinking, and if we're blindly going along with the flow of something that's dogmatic and faith-based, and we accept something as true only because it's repeated over and over again, then we're not being good scientists or good citizens."

Intellectual honesty in the face of reapeted attacks. I love it.

His biggest concern with the ESA, though, is that "it's driven by lawsuits, not science," he says. "The priority of the ESA, according to the letter and spirit of the law, is supposed to go to protecting single-genome, clearly unique species such as the California Condor. That should be our number-one priority. Instead, the process and the system of the ESA is bogged down with lawsuits over species which are definitely not full, distinct species, and may not even be legitimate sub-species.

"Think about biodiversity as a tree that's in trouble," he continues. "Do we want to try and save the little twigs at the end of the big branches, or do we want to try and save the big branches? Which is going to save the tree in the long term, looking out a hundred, 500 years? If we keep running around filing lawsuits, trying to save all these little twigs, we're wasting conservation resources at the expense of the big branches. We just have to understand that we may have to lose some of the little twigs out there. That means that some groups will lose their ESA cash cows, but it's for the long-term good."

Leaving his office, Ramey leads the way into the museum's natural-history archives. He pulls opens a tray of dead mice labeled "Preble's jumping mouse." Then a tray of "Bear Mountain meadow jumping mouse."

"You see any difference?" he asks.

He shuts the drawers, then goes to a cabinet and brings out a stuffed passenger pigeon. "Extinct," he says. "Gone forever. Never coming back." He goes to another cabinet, unlocks it, extracts an ivory-billed woodpecker. "Also extinct."

He points from the passenger pigeon to the ivory-billed woodpecker. Unlike the mice, the two birds look nothing alike.

"These are deep branches on the tree," he says. "These are things that are really and truly different, and they are gone forever from this world. This is where our priorities need to be. This is what really matters."

The man makes so much sense, but that has nothing to do with the ESA today. It's all about stopping development in its tracks because that's what is wanted. Using a species to get their way, not to protect it. I hope more people listen to Dr. Ramey and carefully listen to his wisdom and honesty. They are a rare thing in todays politically correct world and are refreshing.

Honesty, by evil fortune tried,
Finds in adversity the seed of praise.
Ovid

I am really beginning to wonder if I am like an ostrich with my head in the sand. I thought I was fairly aware of what was going on around the US with kids but this one took me by surprise.

By the fourth grade, about one in 25 children has tried an inhalant; by the sixth grade, the rate is one in 10; by eighth grade, it is nearly one in five, Johnston and other researchers report. Inhalant use among eighth-graders is second only to cigarettes and alcohol in drug use.

Inhalant abuse (free registration required). I've heard of it but I never thought it was so widespread. One in five eighth-graders have tried it. That so blows me away I can't fathom it. My daughter is in eighth grade. Do I think she has done such things? No. But this makes me wonder. I guess awareness helps combat such things and now that I'm aware I can be more conscious of it. It would be nice to be an ostrich though once in a while and not worry about such things but that doesn't help.

The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one's own-even more, one's own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being. Katherine Anne Porter

I just received an email from Montana Newslink that announced that there are "Grants Available for Projects to Prevent Child Abuse, Neglect ."

What I really found interesting is that the board for this fund "is especially interested in plans that" among other things "serve low-income communities, young or first-time parents, or parents with young children will be given priority" for the grants.

Since all of us parents at one time were first time parents or had young children they are assuming all parents abuse their children. I find this an interesting supposition for our government to work from. If they are going to assume we are all child abusers, why don't they just remove the children from the parents as they are born and rear them the way they see fit?

The essence of government is power, and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. James Madison

If you read any blogs at all you have probably heard them talk about comment spam. I have been fighting a losing battle against the loathsome creatures that do these dirty deeds and finally have instituted other counter measures. You will note that you now have to enter a code to post a comment. I looked at quite a few solutions for the problem and decided to try this one. Please let me know what you think of it. I don't feel it burdens you or me very much to do this and shouldn't keep you from commenting. There are some solutions like blacklist that work in the background but I don't particularly like the way it is instituted in Wordpress so I went the way I did. If you have any problems and are not able to comment please contact me at sarpysam (at) nowherethoughts (dot) net. Thank you for you patience in this matter.

O my reader, if any age before this in all the centuries of earth ever produced any creature so utterly low and loathsome, so physically, mentally, individually, and collectively hideous? Ouida

I guess I just don't understand politics because the Montana Legislature has me confused again. You might note that i have been talking about Montana politics a lot lately. The Montana Legislature meets every other year for a 90 day session and it's probably the most scary thing in the world to me. You never know what hare-brained scheme they are going to come up with so I really focus on it when they are in session, out to screw up my life.

Today's confusion stems from the Senates passage of a bill that defines a quality education in the State of Montana.

Fiscal analysts have said the bill could cost the state up to $450 million a year.

Where in tarnation do they think they are going to come up with that kind of money! Coming into the legislative session there is an extra $293 million dollars in the treasury but Governor BS's budget all ready spends all but $80 million of that, so where's the money. They will just have to raise taxes I guess. But the Governor has pledged not to increase taxes.

"A better Montana begins with the best business climate a state can have because a better business climate means more good-paying jobs," Schweitzer said. "It is time to say that Montana is open for business. This means keeping taxes low, growing existing businesses and marketing Montana to the world."

"We will grow this state's economy, and we will do it without raising taxes."

So, does anybody see where the $450 million is going to come from under these circumstances? I sure can't. They must plan on conjuring the money up from thin air. The only other solution is the taxpayer's pocket. I personally think the Governor will have to break his pledge and raise taxes to do everything he has planned and pay for things like this education bill. The problem is the taxpayers, buisness or personal, can't afford it but I don't see any other solution to the fiscal crisis the legislature is going to put the State in.

In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. Voltaire

My Darling Wife loves to take pictures and she took some the other day I wanted to share. She might yell at me for doing this but that's the way things go. I complained about the warm weather melting what little snow we had and running water. This is very unusual in January so my Darling Wife took pictures.





Now she keeps telling me she isn't very good taking pictures. I disagree with her but she don't listen. She takes real good pictures and even has a good eye for them as shown with this picture.





I just love this picture with the water running through the trees and brush that haven't sprouted yet. She has an eye for pictures in my opinion.

The magic of photography is metaphysical. What you see in the photograph isn't what you saw at the time. The real skill of photography is organised visual lying. Terence Donovan

Shades of Chicago rejoice. Let's make votes from the graveyard legal now. That's the ticket. Don't know for sure who will benifit but somebody will make it work for them.

It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting. Tom Stoppard

The Internet is a vast store of information for people to use. But some of the information makes you wonder why people put it on the Internet at all.

A 50-year-old Reno man who was hospitalized after he castrated himself told police he learned of the procedure on the Internet and did so to lower his libido. The man, whose name was not released, called 911 at about 1:30 a.m. Monday and asked for help because he could not stop the bleeding from a self-castration operation, police said.

I have a couple of questions on this story. Why didn't he look up on the Internet how to stop the bleeding, my idea to stop the bleeding for him would have been to cauterize the wound, since the Internet is where he got the information to cause the bleeding? The other question is why did he feel it necessary to lower his libido? Millions of men buy prescription products to enhance their libido and he is trying to lower his. Their are a lot of men out there that wish they had his problem.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. George Bernard Shaw

UPDATE: Maybe the man needed to consult the Scrotal Safety Commision before performing this operation.

This really worries me. Gov. Brian Schweitzer thinks that breaking the law is OK.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Wednesday he was aware of the charges filed against Lynch's business because of newspaper coverage at the time. Schweitzer said he talked with Lynch about the matter before nominating him to the Cabinet post. The violations did not give him pause about choosing Lynch, he said.

"It's pretty clear that he hadn't done anything unethical," the Democrat said.

At least that the way I read the quote. Breaking the law is not unethical he says. I sure think it is and to say it's not is a pretty twisted sense of right and wrong.

I personally don't have a problem with Jim Lynch having this in his past. He was caught, fessed up, paid his fine, and moved on. This shows a high moral code to me but for the Governor to call the whole offense ethical is flat wrong. I really worry where we are going as a state.

Laws, religions, creeds, and systems of ethics, instead of making society better than its best unit, make it worse than its average unit, because they are never up to date. George Bernard Shaw

Even comedians can't come up with jokes that make me laugh as much as I did at Hatch's recent fiasco. I mean how stupid can you be. Win one million dollars on national TV and then not claim it on your income tax. Did he really think the IRS wasn't going to figure this one out. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time.

It is against Stupidity in every shape and form that we have to wage our eternal battle. But how can we wonder at the want of sense on the part of those who have had no advantages, when we see such plentiful absence of that commodity on the part of those who have had all the advantages? William Booth

Well I hope everybody had a nice, warm beautiful March day like we did here. Whoa...wait a second...almost 50 degrees.....water running from snow melt....short sleeve weather....mud starting to show up....but it isn't March.

It's January you crazy weather. You are melting my snow too early. BAD WEATHER!!! BAD, BAD, BAD!!!

When the weather is bad as it was yesterday, everybody, almost everybody, feels cross and gloomy. Rutherford Birchard Hayes

While removing all the bison from Yellowstone National Park will Remove the brucellosis threat it poses, I don't really see the National Park Service and the American public allowing Montana to destroy or remove all the Bison from the park. What fantasy world is Governor BS living in to think the public is going to allow this? While I agree the current hazing done by the Park Service and the State is a joke, it's the only thing the Park Service will allow to happen to their bison.

If the park were stripped of its bison and then repopulated with their descendants, how are you going to keep the bison from getting the disease from the elk again. Even if Wyoming were to close its feeding grounds, which they all ready have said they won't do, brucellosis would still be in the elk herd and be able to be transferred to bison for a long time to come so the problem will remain and not be solved. It's been observed that elk transfer brucellosis to cattle and since cattle and bison are enough alike to interbreed I am sure the elk could pass it to bison easily enough.

One other quick question on this proposal. Who is going to pay for all of this? The state has always maintained that the bison are the Park service's responsibility and cleaning up the brucellosis issue should fall on them. The Park Service has always said they really don't concern themselves with the brucellosis situation and aren't going to pay a dime for it. I never have quite figured out this stance since eradicating brucellosis was a task the Federal Government pursued to protect the health of the American public, why don't they do something about it with the animals under their control instead of expecting the states to do something about it.

Having bold plans and ideas are one thing, but reality has to intrude somewhere and this proposal falls way outside the bounds that I see the American public accepting. Destroying the whole bison herd will not be acceptable to the public so it won't happen, mark my words.

Reality in our century is not something to be faced. Graham Greene

The Gazette just has to do us a favor and remind us of the drought. It's never far from my mind but I can bury it in the day to day worries of getting everything done, until somebody comes along and rubs my nose in it.

The one guy talks about putting up no hay and having to buy some all ready this winter. It's the same here but I bought my hay early knowing I would need it. In a way I wish I could make this kind of deal every year. With the payout from my insurance for putting up no hay, the hay I bought was cheaper than I could put it up for if i would have had hay. I paid just over $80/ton for hay but once the insurance check came in my out of pocket expense for it was $20/ton. I can't put up hay that cheap so it worked out good, except for the fact the hay quality is less than I put up, but it's all a trade-off.

There is not really much to say about the drought. I'm hoping for a better year, it wouldn't take much, but planning for the worst. I will at least have a better start to grass this year with the moisture that fell last fall. It's still in the ground and will help bring the green grass on. Whether we get enough moisture after that is the question. It's kind of like the one article says, all that remains is hope.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment. Samuel Johnson